Freedom beckons for killer Frank Wilkinson

Feb 12 2012 by Lisa Hutchinson, Sunday Sun

FREEDOM finally beckons for killer Frank Wilkinson after 25 years behind bars for a murder he still insists he didn’t commit.

Having just enjoyed his first trip outside the prison walls – he was allowed out unaccompanied for a routine hospital appointment – Wilkinson is being considered for parole.

Now aged 65, he was jailed for life in 1987 for the murder of Alan Raffle whose frozen body was found in a snowdrift in Northumberland’s Kielder Forest.

A career criminal with a host of convictions, he has always maintained his innocence and denied murdering 23-year-old Mr Raffle.

And today in an exclusive interview from North Sea Camp prison in Lincolnshire, bespectacled Wilkinson told of his fears and his hopes for the future.

He has only recently been moved to the open prison, having spent 23 of the past 25 years as a Category-A prisoner in some of Britain’s toughest jails, including Long Lartin and Whitemoor.

Now he hopes he may be freed in May, when he again appears before the Parole Board.

And on Friday he spent time in the outside world when he made his way to the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincs, four miles from the prison.

His Geordie accent softened after such a long time away from his native Tyneside, Wilkinson said his time spent locked up has not been a complete waste of a life.

After all, he said, he has obtained a PhD and lower degrees from the Open University, studying English literature and language, and fine arts.

He has also developed a love for what he describes as “a rather dour” novelist – Thomas Hardy.

Wilkinson has always maintained his innocence and in the past has made several unsuccessful attempts to have his murder conviction overturned – the last one was rejected by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) last year.

It is partly this defiance which has cost him so dearly, for had he admitted his guilt, it’s likely the Parole Board would have looked upon him much more generously when considering whether to release him.

Notwithstanding that, and the fact he hopes to be freed soon, he has another appeal pending which he hopes will clear his name.

Wilkinson admits he was a “career criminal” with a conviction for armed robbery, and that he used to trade in stolen cars.